(n.)
A play upon words; a figure by which the same word is used in different senses, or words similar in sound are set in opposition to each other, so as to give antithetical force to the sentence; punning.

paronomasia\par`o*no*ma"si*a\ (?), n. [l., fr. gr. &?;, fr. &?; to form a word by a slight change; &?; beside + &?; to name, fr. &?; a name.] (rhet.) a play upon words; a figure by which the same word is used in different senses, or words similar in sound are set in opposition to each other, so as to give antithetical force to the sentence; punning. [paronomasia n : a humorous play on words; "i do it for the pun of it"; "his constant punning irritated her" [syn: pun, punning, wordplay]

The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play that suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic, homographic, metonymic, or metaphorical language. A pun differs from a malapropism in that a malapropism uses an incorrect expression that alludes to another (usually correct) expression, but a pun uses a correct expression that alludes to another (sometimes correct but more often absurdly humorous) expression. Henri Bergson defined a pun as a sentence or utterance in which "the same sentence appears to offer two independent meanings, but it is only an appearance; in reality there are two different sentences made up of different words, but claiming to be one and the same because both have the same sound". Puns may be regarded as in-jokes or idiomatic constructions, given that their usage and meaning are entirely local to a particular language and its culture. For example, "Camping is intense." (in tents)